The gaming industry’s largest lobbying group is pushing for regulators to allow for cashless gambling transactions in casinos.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, casinos have been considered one of the riskiest businesses for the continued spread of coronavirus. The passing of chips and cards between players and dealers is the main reason for that, but the abundance of cash transactions can also help facilitate spread.
The American Gaming Association released a report Tuesday morning that called for regulators in states that have legalized gambling to update their laws and allow for cashless transactions.
The study showed that 57 percent of gamblers believe a digital and contactless form of payment is essential to help curb the spread of the virus. It also revealed that 59 percent of people who have visited casinos in the last year are less likely to revisit one because of the pandemic.
According to the Associated Press report, there are already a few casinos that allow for cashless payments in the form of credit or debit cards or mobile apps like PayPal. The overwhelming majority of casinos, however, will not accept any non-cash transaction.
The president and CEO of the AGA, Bill Miller, said the move towards cashless transactions in casinos has been a long time coming.
“Advancing opportunities for digital payments has been one of our top priorities since my first day at the AGA,” said Miller in a press release. “It aligns with gaming’s role as modern, 21st century industry and bolsters our already rigorous regulatory and responsible gaming measures. The COVID-19 pandemic made it all the more important to advance our efforts to provide customers with the payment choice they are more comfortable with and have increasingly come to expect in their daily lives.”
One of the main reasons regulators have been opposed to non-cash options because of the opportunity for problem gamblers to wager beyond their means through credit card use. The AGA, however, doesn’t necessarily believe that credit cards need to be used.
On their website, the AGA states that modern, cashless payment solutions could come in the form of gaming credits or chips purchased from gambling operators. The use of debit cards to purchase those credits seems more likely to be approved by regulators since debit cards are linked to a checking account that would need the required funds available to complete the purchase.
The nation’s entire casino industry shut down in mid-march in response to COVID-19. At the time of writing, 308 of the 989 casinos in America are still closed because of it.
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